3 Mistakes Successful People Don't Make

There are a lot of things that contribute to success. But a few things are universal barriers to achieving it, says Bernard Marr, a bestselling business author and global enterprise performance expert, in a recent LinkedIn post.

Falling into these traps can put "roadblocks on your path to success," he explains.

In Marr's observation of successful people, he has noticed a few mistakes that they tend to avoid. Here are three of them:

Mistake No. 1: Following the trends.

In the words of Jack Kerouac, "Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion."

Marr says we often feel like we have to jump at every new development, and try every new "thing." "We sometimes call it 'shiny object syndrome,'" he says. "But jumping at every new thing will leave no time to develop the deep understanding that pursuing lifelong learning might."

Instead of buying into the latest trends, focus your energy on understanding the root of what you hope to succeed at, and ignore the rest, he says. "For example, if you hope to succeed in sales or marketing, you might choose to study human psychology rather than the latest social media marketing schemes."

Mistake No. 2: Refusing to take responsibility.

"One of the first things you will notice that successful people don't have is a blaming or victim mentality," Marr says. When things go awry, successful people won't say, "I couldn't succeed because of X," or, "It's actually John's fault." Instead, they take responsibility and own their mistakes.

"I believe the key here is that by owning a mistake, we are more likely to learn from it and much less likely to repeat it," he says.

Mistake No. 3: Trying to go it alone.

One of the most critical things successful people do is surround themselves with other successful people, Marr explains. "No man is an island, and having a network, [or] a mastermind group, surround oneself with clever people can make all the difference between success and failure."

Marr says avoiding these mistakes can help you succeed at work, or a single goal or task — but to be truly successful, you also need to be happy. "Only when you make happiness and balance a goal can you truly succeed in any other area of your life," he concludes.